G. Romano et al., SKIN-LESIONS IN DIABETES-MELLITUS - PREVALENCE AND CLINICAL CORRELATIONS, Diabetes research and clinical practice, 39(2), 1998, pp. 101-106
With the aim to assess the prevalence and the main clinical correlatio
ns of skin lesions in diabetes mellitus, 457 diabetic subjects consecu
tively attending an outpatient clinic underwent a dermatological exami
nation. Neurovascular foot lesions were excluded. Thirty-five of 64 ID
DM patients (54%) had skin alterations mainly consisting of vitiligo (
9% of all patients), psoriasis (9%) and eczema (8%). The most frequent
skin lesions observed in 240/393 NIDDM subjects (61%) were represente
d by infections (20% of all patients) and diabetic dermopathy (12.5%),
while other lesions were not common. NIDDM patients with skin infecti
ons had a worse metabolic control, and those with diabetic dermopathy
had a greater prevalence of neuropathy and large vessel disease than p
atients without skin lesions. These data show that the prevalence of s
kin diseases in a large, unselected diabetic population is higher than
expected and indicate that, in most cases, a careful dermatological e
xamination and a better metabolic control are needed in order to impro
ve quality of life in these patients. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Irelan
d Ltd. All rights reserved.